The immediate area around UC is just fine. I have numerous friends who went there. If you venture toward the El, though, it gets dicey.

The El (red line, anyway) near U of C is only "dicey" at night, in my experience. Except for a few notable crimes around campus (Amadou Cisse), most of whatever crime there is consists of petty theft, etc. It's just like a lot of other neighborhoods in big cities. That said, you just have to be smart -- for example, don't walk back from the gym at midnight listening to your iPod and not paying attention to what's going on around you.

FYI, many schools game the system and make it impossible for everyone to keep a scholarship they have.

Which schools don't actually do this? It seems rare....

Loyola made all of our scholarships unconditional when I applied. They originally had a 3.0 requirement (pretty easy to maintain), but they changed it over the summer before we started. I think it was in response to Kent throwing HUGE dollar amounts to people knowing they would lose 40K worth of scholarships. And also somewhat in response to DePaul loading a section full of scholarship folks.

This is not true at all. Anyone who actively seeks employment and networks from SIU will get a job. SIU is considered well above NIU and JMLS. Anywhere but Chicago considers SIU ahead of Loyola as well. It is a very good school in a crappy location. If you want to practice in a smaller town, or in St. Louis then it is the school for you.

I'll give you NIU. But in terms of the Chicago market, DePaul, Kent, Loyola, and JMLS are all better. Just take a look at the alumni network for those schools versus SIU.

As for outside of Chicago, it's more of a crapshoot, simply b/c the vast majority of students at Kent, Loyola, and DePaul go to those schools specifically so they can stay in Chicago. Having said that, I know folks who have gone to big law firms in Boston, New York, and California out of Loyola. DePaul and Loyola travel pretty well. Kent has a more difficult time b/c most people have no idea what Kent is. As someone else mentioned, St. Louis is dominated by SLU. SIU might place decently there, but it's not even a primary market. While SIU might be a decent school, it suffers mightily from the fact that it has no primary market whatsoever.

The bottom line is if you want to be in Chicago, stay clear of SIU. It'll make life easier. If you want to be outside of Chicago, be prepared to work your ass off even more for a job no matter where you go.

That is good to hear. I figured that it had to be better closer to the U of C campus, otherwise there is no way that the school could attract students. I still don't know if I would want to deal with the very rough area nearby, though.

The vast majority of big cities (all?) will place you within minutes of crappy areas. It's a bit of a risk, but if you do your research and play it safe, you'll be fine.